US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is due to open her long-awaited school tomorrow, fulfilling a promise she made to former president Nelson Mandela six years ago and giving more than 150 poor South African girls a chance for a better future.
Mandela was invited to be among the dignitaries at the opening of the lavish Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg, as well as a string of international celebrities, though the guest list was kept secret.
Oprah said she decided to build her own school because she was tired of charity from a distance.
“When I first started making a lot of money, I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write cheque after cheque to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me,” she said in an interview with Newsweek magazine.
“At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.”
The $40m (€30.3m) academy aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country in which schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.
Heightening concerns about declining standards in South Africa’s schooling system, the education department said last week that the school-leaving matriculation exam pass rate had dropped for the third straight year.
This year’s matriculation class, which started school the same year as multiracial elections in 1994, was dubbed ”Madiba’s Children” after the clan name for Mandela, who came to power with the onset of democracy.
Yet two thirds of the 1,667,000 children who started school 12 years ago dropped out, and only 5% of the total intake are eligible to go to university.
“We know that we still have much to do to guarantee proper education for our children, as well as provide the necessary training for those who need the skills that our society end economy demand,” President Thabo Mbeki said in a new-year message.
Monday, January 1, 2007
OPRAH SCHOOL IN SOUTH AFRICA SCHEDULED TO OPEN...
US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey is due to open her long-awaited school tomorrow, fulfilling a promise she made to former president Nelson Mandela six years ago and giving more than 150 poor South African girls a chance for a better future.
Mandela was invited to be among the dignitaries at the opening of the lavish Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in the small town of Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg, as well as a string of international celebrities, though the guest list was kept secret.
Oprah said she decided to build her own school because she was tired of charity from a distance.
“When I first started making a lot of money, I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write cheque after cheque to this or that charity without really feeling like it was a part of me,” she said in an interview with Newsweek magazine.
“At a certain point, you want to feel that connection.”
The $40m (€30.3m) academy aims to give 152 girls from deprived backgrounds a quality education in a country in which schools are struggling to overcome the legacy of apartheid.
Heightening concerns about declining standards in South Africa’s schooling system, the education department said last week that the school-leaving matriculation exam pass rate had dropped for the third straight year.
This year’s matriculation class, which started school the same year as multiracial elections in 1994, was dubbed ”Madiba’s Children” after the clan name for Mandela, who came to power with the onset of democracy.
Yet two thirds of the 1,667,000 children who started school 12 years ago dropped out, and only 5% of the total intake are eligible to go to university.
“We know that we still have much to do to guarantee proper education for our children, as well as provide the necessary training for those who need the skills that our society end economy demand,” President Thabo Mbeki said in a new-year message.
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